I wholeheartedly agree with your first two paragraphs, but you lost me at the earthquakes. No amount of energy is going to stop a solar flare or earthquake. We might stop a meteor with nuclear weapons, but we already have more of those than we know what to do with. I don't think we have reached the end of electronic innovation. New electronic gadgets are introduced every year. Better batteries are a plus, but I think AAA size nuclear reactors may be overkill.

I think it would be cool to have a TV that had so much energy in it's battery that you'd never have to plug it in. I also agree that energy for transporation is nice--I like fast cars and traveling too.

But even right now, we Have and can generate huge amounts of energy. If you're post is relative to getting away from fossil fuels, sure, I agree it would be good, but again, what we go to has to be better than gasoline and coal. You gotta admit, gasoline and coal make lots of energy with the smallest cost, at least today. And really, they've been made pretty clean.

I think we already have some of 'our smartest people' working on this, but in a free market, resources allocate themselves. You seem to give this higer importance than society does--our dollars indicate that we value doctors and lawyers more than scientists here. Also, do you want 'smartest people' or 'the entire world' working on this?

'Cause right now, people that have money have all the energy they want. Do you want 'more' energy, or do you just want to stop having to buy it from overseas and be able to sell it? What do you have in mind for this additional energy? Just to supplant oil?

I think the meteor thing is probably a red herring. Energy doesn't equal a plan or apparatus to destroy meteors.

BTW, great post--we're just all so used to shooting down bad ideas here. It's an intersting topic. I don't want to give you the impression that I'm not looking forward.

I agree, right now, we have no way to stop an earthquake but that may be because we haven't asked the question, "How can we stop an earthquake?" Or maybe, we don't bother asking because it seems impossible. The simple matter is that an earthquake posses’ energy, so energy can probably stop it. If we had access to infinite amounts of energy, then we'd think in a different way. Our resources define how we solve problems. Check out this YouTube video about Class 0, 1, 2, and 3 type civilizations. I just want the World to transition happily. ;-)

I believe most electronic innovations are slowed by greed and limited power sources. Today I can buy a cell phone that is also a digital camera and a calculator and a video game system, etc. These devices have existed for a long time; they're just getting better, smaller, consolidated and cheaper. Cell phones are also built around their power source; the battery. Eventually cell phones could heat our cold coffee, dry our clothes, cook our dinner, power our cars, and start our camp fires in an instant blaze of plasma. haha I know this sounds ridiculous but I can only conjure up type 0 civilization level ideas. Imagine a TV that never had to be plugged in as hrench referred to. Why do we have to plug everything in? It’s because we can't store huge amounts of energy in small packages.

Enough energy to run a TV for it's operational life is one thing and requires energy storage, the amount of energy that the Sun is wasting is the kind of huge energy I really want to focus on. We capture some where between 0.00000000001% and 0.000000045% of the Sun's energy. If we captured just 1% by building solar panels in space and found a way to distribute the energy, Earth would be set for a long time. Everything could switch to electric. No more fossil fuels. Although, right now, we need fossil fuels, we should drill and mine so much we run out! haha You're right it's cheap and if we had more available, it'd be cheaper. This in turn, would decrease the cost of the solar panel space project. ;-)

Consider the World's economy. On a very basic level, money is natural resources. The more trees, vegetables, cows, gold and oil we have per capita, the richer the World. Less resources equals a poorer World. Less people equals a richer World. Currently, some countries are rich and some are poor. Energy is becoming a huge commodity in the World. It's ever growing. Eventually we'll need more energy than food, if that isn't already true. So by having an oozing abundance of energy, maybe poverty could be cured. I think many problems could be cured and new problems would arise. I hope to live to witness such a new era of Earthlings.

I like discussing an array of perspectives. I hope you see my comment as clarification of my viewpoint for needing energy. I imagine more disagreements may occur and I will enjoy the feedback. I look forward to posting and reading more rants, inventions and concepts. This is a great site for releasing mental energy. Thanks!

MrCoder, though that guy in the video is interesting, he speaks of all of that stuff as if he actually knows it exists.

For those that didn't go watch it, the speaker describes type 1, 2 and 3 civilizations that harness their whole sun, travel in the galaxy, design robots that copy themselves. Since no-one has ever seen any civilizations higher than our own (type zero), it's just as believable as UFO's, Cryptozoology, Robots/computers gaining self awareness, that Illuminati control the world,or the discovery of God. I have seen no proof that any of these things are possible.

The guy in that movie also talks about knowing that there must be x-number of civilations, but he's basing his supposition on values inserted into the Drake equation--and for some of those values, we have no way to know if they're not actually zero. Fl for instance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

There are new energy technologies being invented by scientists almost every day now. Have you heard about the "dot.sun" revolution, companies are throwing tons of money at thin film solar technology now with tons of innovation. Also a new heat engine called the "Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System" Will most likely replace conventional sterling engines. For energy storage a company called "EEStor" says that is will have the first production model of a new ultra capacitor that will change the entire automotive industry if it works. Also our technologies are using less and less energy these days, like the new OLED television that runs on battery power. And if you want infinite free energy, then fusion is the most likely source that is possible in the near future.

Artz, you're right about the new energy tech.

Here's one I'm watching:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell